Our Christmas

Just about to sit down at the table.

We really ate too much yesterday. I think we nearly always do. I phoned family and friends to wish them a Happy Christmas and we sat in front of our roaring fire and watched TV.

But today we worked it off.

Yes we were olive picking. It was such a lovely day, really sunny and hot.

Nice juicy olives

A working donkey

I found these lovely little flowers blooming away to themselves.

The olives all picked and loaded onto the pick-up.

What did you do on Boxing day?

Music Night.

Last Monday we when to a Music Night as I was celebrating my birthday. There where a few people getting up to entertain us, but we also had instruments too. Tambourines, maracas, and loads more.

 

 

We all had a good time.

A very enjoyable night.

Merry Christmas everyone

I hope all my readers have a great time over the Christmas season.

Will you be making any resolutions for the New Year?

Cooking the Greek way

This is a traditional oven here on the Island of Crete. It is a dome shape inside and they light a fire with wood in there. When the oven is red hot they let the fire die down and they then put in the food for cooking.

To cook bread they clean out all the ashes but for meat they put the pans onto the hot ash. They then put on the door to keep the heat in and the food cooks.

And this is the finished product. Potatoes, meat, tomatoes, olive oil, tomatoe paste, oregano, salt, lemon juice and water. Eaten outside in the olive groves. Beautiful!!!

This is a 70 yr old Cretan lady testing the meal. She gave it the seal of approval.

What a Whopper.

When we were out shopping this morning we came across these pomegranates. I have never seen such large fruits. The top right-hand one weighed in at 1.03kg. Wow!!!

Olive Picking

Well its olive picking time again. Ian was helping some Greek friends to pick their olives last week. It is quite hard work, even with the machines.

This is a typical site in the olive groves right now. The nets are placed on the ground to catch all the olives as they are knocked off the branches. This picture shows them having a break to drink a little Raki.

When they were all working I took myself a little walk and left them to it.

These are two ruined windmills

 

This one has had a little bit of renovation.

A view over the olive groves.

The weather has been a bit changeable this week, the sun comes out and it’s quite hot, then it clouds over and the rain comes and when it rains it rains very heavy. Your drenched in no time. I know this very well, as the last two days when taking Lucky on her morning walk I have been caught about half way around and got absolutely soaked.

How is the weather treating you in your neck of the woods?

Last Weeks Walk.

Last week we took a lovely walk along the cliffs at Malia.

The weather was hot. To be quite honest we have had really good weather this November.

We found this rock sticking out of the ground with all these sea shells embedded in it.

I wonder how many thousands of years ago that this happened? This is quite high up from the sea level now, so what was going on all that time ago?

The weather changed here on Wednesday 2nd December. We had lashings of rain, the water running down the streets like rivers, and the wind!!!

We  get really freaky type winds up here. Like mini hurricanes and things get tossed all about. Not too much damage though this time.

Then on Thursday out came the sun again. I am hoping we have some good weather at Christmas to, as my middle son is coming over for the festivities. Really looking forward to that.

What are you doing over the Christmas period?

Where have all the tourists gone?

All the tourists have gone home and here we are sitting in the lovely sunshine having a bite to eat.

All very peaceful.

We had the entire place to ourselves. Gyros for two, super yummy

England here I come.

Well it’s off to England on the 23rd September for a fortnight.

There are so many things to do when I get there. I have a wedding to attend and a rather special 7oth birthday party.

This is a photo of our wedding in 1991. The girl standing next to my hubby is Louise, whose wedding I am going to. She is my nephew’s daughter. My other two bridesmaids are my friends daughters, Emma and Vicky.

The birthday party is for my only sister, Lily. She will be 70 on 30th September.

I love her to bits.

Our mother died when I was only 8yrs old and Lily been nearly 13yrs older than me more or less brought me up.

Lily and her husband Steve are coming back over here with me when I return. They are staying for a fortnights holiday. It will be the second time they have used the bookcase bed.( see previous post)

A Bookcase With A Secret.

Ian made me this lovely bookcase as I have loads of books needing a home. The thing is it is not only a bookcase.

We only have one bedroom here and we needed to have somewhere for our visitors to sleep. Somewhere with a bit of privacy. Where could we put them? The stable? No, only joking, really. Anyway Ian came up with a wonderful plan. Hence the bookcase.

The bookcase is at the front but behind is a secret hiding place. My hubby is not a carpenter and came across a few problems during the construction but it turned out just as we wanted it.

In the back of the bookcase we have stored the double bed frame and mattress. Its a perfect storage place for it when it’s not in use.

When we get company the bookcase opens out and becomes a room divider. The back then become a wardrobe for the guests clothes.How ingenious is that?

It halves the size of our living room when we do have guests but we spend a lot of time outside in the courtyard anyway, so it is not too much of an inconvenience.

I know that I am very pleased with it, all it needs now is for it to be stained or varnished.

Siamese Twins???????????

 

This I found very interesting and have not seen anything like it before. I prepare lettuce everyday at work. All just like this one, but then I found this one was different. The outer leaves formed one lettuce as you can see, but underneath those leaves

 

It had two heads but only one stalk.

Have you seen anything like this?

What could have caused it?

Could it have been the fertilizer or pesticides or just a fluke of nature? It certainly makes you wonder.

Well that's it.

 

Yesterday was my last day at work. The season has been very short. I have not earned as much as I was hoping to so we will just have to tighten our belts a little this winter. Ian still has a few more shifts then he will be finished too.

In a way I am a bit sad but also pleased that I will have more time for me and us. We will be able to make plans, go out when we want and just do as we please. No more working around a rota.

With us both working things have slipped a bit here so first thing is to get the house back up together again and looking tidy. Then after a bit of leisure time start again with the continuing renovation work. There is still a lot to do, so I think we will have to write out a priority list, getting the most essential work done first. Like a staircase up to the bedroom. At the moment we go out of the house, lock the door, go up the outside steps onto the roof and enter the bedroom  through the door that the lovely Geoff made for us.

This also means more time for my crafty pursuits and more blogging!!!!!!!!!

Cheers everyone!

Fruity

Not that long ago all the flowers were out, blooming away merrily. Now look what's happened.

We have pomegranates on the trees.

 

Luscious figs. They are ripening fast and bursting open. No one seems to pick them and they just drop off and get squashed on the ground.

 

The olives are coming along just fine. They have a long way to go yet though, harvesting doesn't start till around January.

 

The grapes are getting there too. Yum yum.

It won't be long before I'm picking my walnuts.

 

Wonder when it's time to pick them, how do you tell when they are ripe?

I know a man who will tell me, just got to find the time to go and see him.

Along Came A Spider.

I am no spider lover and it took a lot of nerve to take this close up of a spider I saw when taking Lucky for a walk.

It looks like it has only four legs but take a closer look and you can see its holding two legs together. It never moved when I took its photo. Its body is about half and inch round.

No wonder little Miss Muffet ran away, think I would too.